Review Fix Exclusive: Hatchets for Hands’ Cullen Poythress Talks New EP and More

Review Fix chats with Cullen Poythress from Hatchets for Hands (Drums/Vocals) to learn all about the band’s new EP, Convulsions of a Dying Empire, their creative process and goals for the rest of 2018.

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Cullen Poythress: We’ve been friends since a really young age and at a certain point while living in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco we decided to put together a death metal group. The energy of the area really helped inspire the music and it’s been great getting to the point of finally releasing singles and this EP years later.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Poythress: We’ve been musicians since we were kids. We got into playing/writing after being influenced by artists we listened to in many different genres including rock, metal, hip-hop and more.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Poythress: Since we are a duo it’s pretty easy for us to get into a room together and hash out ideas in person and via studio sessions. Since between the both of us we made a record that would easily take 5 people to play live, the process is very smooth and has less cooks in the kitchen like other bands. We do take our time writing material, as we don’t want to put out rushed music and take what we write very seriously. However, we have a lot of fun doing this and we do music as a side part of our busy lives tied up in other creative careers.

Review Fix: What inspires you?

Poythress: We are heavily influenced by a lot of the legacy metal bands out of American and Scandinavian regions over the past 20-30 years. Lyrically and overall, we draw a lot of inspiration from our life experiences, where we live and emotionally how we are feeling at the time when writing. But really, metal inspires us. Straight up, heavy metal is what Hatchets For Hands is all about.

Review Fix: What makes “To The Grave” a special track?

Poythress: It was one of the very first tracks we ever wrote as a band and really set the tone for the other songs we’ve written since. It really made things easier since when you start a band you’re like “now what?” “got any riffs?” etc.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Poythress: Well, our first instinct would be to fuck with that person and tell them we sound like a bit of country and hip-hop put together. Then we’ll send them a link and take things from there.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2018?

Poythress: We’re already diving into writing new songs for the next release and have some amazing ideas ready to track coming soon. We really want to keep the momentum going this year and put out music often.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Poythress: We’re putting together these ideas for new songs and talking to some great musicians about assembling our live band for future shows. So much to come!

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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